Use of chemotherapy within the last 14 days of life in patients treated at a comprehensive cancer center
Menée à partir de données portant sur 7 399 patients atteints d'un cancer en phase terminale et décédés entre décembre 2010 et mai 2012, cette étude rétrospective évalue la proportion de patients ayant reçu une chimiothérapie dans les 14 derniers jours de vie
Evidence suggests that minimizing aggressive treatment for patients with terminal cancer may provide a better quality of life during the patients’ final days.1,2 One of the proposed metrics for determining quality of cancer care is whether chemotherapy is administered in the last 14 days of life.3 We assessed the proportion of patients who received chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life at our institution by diagnostic categories of solid tumor or hematologic malignant neoplasm and by factors with a potential influence on the use of chemotherapy.